http://uk.reuters.com/JOHANNESBURG |
Sun Jun 30, 2013 7:04pm BST
(Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said
on Sunday Zimbabwe's economic
recovery gave the southern African country an
opportunity to advance but
only if upcoming elections were "free and
fair."
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, at 89 Africa's oldest leader,
is seeking
to extend his three-decade rule in elections scheduled for July
31. The
opposition wants to delay the poll to allow reforms designed to
prevent a
repeat of the bloodshed that marred the 2008
election.
"Zimbabweans have a new constitution. The economy is beginning
to recover.
So there is an opportunity to move forward," Obama said in a
televised
speech at the University of Cape Town during his three-nation
Africa visit."But only if there is an election that is free and fair
and peaceful so that
Zimbabweans can determine their future without fear of
intimidation and
retribution," Obama said.
Mugabe, in power since
1980, has been accused by critics of rigging
elections and driving the
economy into near ruin by scaring off investors
with polices such as the
seizure of white-owned farms for redistribution to
landless
blacks.
After a decade of contraction which saw the domestic currency
rendered
worthless by hyper-inflation, the economy has been growing again,
in part
because Zimbabwe has dumped its own dollar in favour of the U.S.
dollar.
Obama said in Zimbabwe, "the promise of liberation gave way to
the
corruption of power and then the collapse of the economy."
Obama
is visiting Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania on his African trip.
http://www.news24.com/2013-06-30 20:14Harare - President Robert Mugabe has
become Zimbabwe's sole law-making
authority until the next elections are
held following the automatic
dissolution of parliament, his justice minister
told state media on Sunday.
The country's legislature was dissolved on
Saturday after completing its
five-year term.
According to Justice
Minister Patrick Chinamasa this left veteran leader
Mugabe as the only
law-making power until new elections, for which no clear
date has been set
yet.
"There is no authority with the power to make legislation except the
president," the Sunday Mail newspaper quoted Chinamasa as
saying.
"The executive will be left legally limping because it needs the
legislature
for it to be fully functional," he added.
Mugabe and his
long-time rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai disagree
over the date for
upcoming polls that would end their power-sharing
government.
Mugabe
unilaterally proclaimed 31 July for a presidential and parliamentary
vote,
but mediators have since pressured him to apply for a two-week
delay.
Tsvangirai has filed an appeal, arguing that the proposed delay
was too
short to implement key reforms in media and the security
forces.
This will be the longest time since 1980 independence that the
country is
run under presidential decree after the dissolution of
parliament, according
to Chinamasa.
"Normally parliament is dissolved
the midnight before elections," he said.
Mugabe and Tsvangirai formed a
power-sharing government four years ago to
pull the country back from the
brink of conflict.
New elections were due 18 months after the formation
of the government, but
disagreements over the reforms have derailed the vote
preparations.
- AFP
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/30/06/2013 00:00:00
by Staff
Reporter
SOUTH Africa wants Zimbabwe to postpone elections by at
least a month from
to allow time for the government to implement “basic
reforms” to ensure free
and fair elections, a senior official
said.
President Robert Mugabe had declared the elections would be held on
July31,
complying with a Constitutional Court ruling ordering the polls to
be held
before the end of the month.
But the government has returned
to the court to seek a two week delay
following recommendations by the
regional SADC grouping.
The court is set to hear the case, filed by Justice
Minister Patrick
Chinamasa along with other applications by the MDC leaders
Morgan Tsvangirai
and Welshman Ncube, on Thursday.
An advisor to
South African President Jacob Zuma, who has led the regional
grouping’s
mediation effort in Zimbabwe, said SADC hoped the court would
grant a longer
delay.
“(We are) hoping the court will be sensitive to the process of the
resolution of some of the tensions in the build-up to elections,” said
Lindiwe Zulu, a member of SADC’s facilitation team, told South African media
at the weekend.
“We would hope the court would approve the extension
for at least a month
because a lot of the new reforms are mentioned in the
new constitution,”
Zulu said.
“Considering that elections are around
the corner there must be enough time
to implement at least the basic reforms
to prevent a repeat of 2008.”
Mugabe insists that he has no problem with
the problem with the court’s July
31 deadline and had already moved to
comply with the order.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said he had
only filed the appeal for a
two-week delay after being asked by
SADC.
However, Tsvangirai insists a longer delay is necessary to allow the
implementations of reforms to ensure credible elections and appears to have
the backing of Zuma and his team.
“Some of the reforms needed before
elections can take place are a conducive
environment for electioneering,”
Zulu said.
“There must be free political activity where there’s no
intimidation and
violence. All political parties even beyond the three who
are party to the
global political agreement must have the freedom to run in
the elections
without any harassment.”
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/30/06/2013
00:00:00
by Staff ReporterTHE on-going voter registration
exercise, touted as “successful” by the
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC)
has been dismissed by political parties
as “shambolic, partisan and
underpinned by a desire to instilling fear into
voters.
ZEC has been
carrying out a so-called “intensive” exercise to register
voters ahead of
fresh elections to replace the coalition government.
But political
parties slammed the exercise at meeting held in Harare last
week saying ZEC
had presided over a process that would “disenfranchise
thousands of
potential voters”.
MDC Representative Kuda Munengiwa said the process is
a sham aimed at
handing electoral victory to Zanu PF through deliberately
disenfranchising
would-be voters.
He added that mobile registration
units said to have been deployed by ZEC
were not visible in the wards and,
where they had been established, would
close early regardless of whether
they had cleared registering voters or
not.
“It is unfortunate that
it seems as if people in this country are afraid of
voters. The purpose of
the 30-day mobile registration process as enshrined
in the constitution is
to mop up every other voter that has not been
captured by the normal
processes of voter registration,” he said.
“The constitution is very
clear, it should be a 30-day ward based voter
registration exercise but it
has been converted into a district-based
exercise.
“So what it means
is that ZEC people are in a ward for about three days,
they don’t care
whether they have registered everyone, or when they closed
the third day
they was a queue. They will simply move to the next ward. In
our view this
is a way of disenfranchising potential voters.”
The Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn
national mobilisation secretary Chenjerai Gwanzura
said his party had also
noted a “lot of irregularities” in the conduct of
ZEC adding that the
registration process would not achieve its intended
purpose since the
electoral body’s officials were acting in a partisan
manner.
“We have
Zanu PF leaders who are collecting national registration documents
of their
members - collecting about a 100 of those documents. They then go
to these
mobile registration centres with the ideas to have their members
registered.
“What then happens is that those in the queue will wait
the whole day. We
have also been to centres where only ten people are served
per day. There is
an unofficial declared go-slow by ZEC
officials.”
MDC-T Spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora also claimed that his
party had
unearthed a number of irregularities the registration exercise,
particularly
in the distribution of mobile registration
teams.
“Clearly the voter registration exercise is shambolic and
partisan; it is
unprofessional, incomplete, and it is premised on a very
wrong understanding
of our constitutional law,” he said.
“What is
happening is that the Registrar General is subverting the
constitutional
provisions to the date of elections. The date of elections is
not a
constitutional provision, what is a constitutional provision is the
right of
a Zimbabwean to register.
“There is an unofficial declared go slow by ZEC
in Harare, why? - because
Harare is seen as the stronghold for MDC-T. Also
we have 98 voter
registration centres in Mashonaland central and we had 49
in Manicaland
province. Now, you can’t tell me that Manicaland is half of
Mashonaland
central.”
Mwonzora said the President’s Mugabe’s
proclamation of the nomination date
inside the voter registration period was
a deliberate move to disenfranchise
those who register after the 28th of
June.
“For you to nominate anyone you must be on the voters roll and for
you to be
nominated as a candidate for any position you should also be on
the role.
What is then important is what the voters’ roll looks like at the
date of
nomination.
“Now the President has declared 28th of June as
the day of nomination but
the voter registration exercise ends on the 10th
of July. And if you call a
nomination date on the 28th of June it means that
you are disenfranchising
people who are going to register between 28 June
and July 10. These people
can neither be nominated as candidates nor
nominate anyone.
However, Justice Rita Makarau, who heads to electoral
body, said the
exercise had been a “success”.
“Since the last 14 days,
273,319 new voters have been captured. This is in
addition to the 204 000
new voters who were registered during the last
exercise. We are approaching
half a million since the two exercises began,”
Makarau told state media at
the weekend.
“We at ZEC believe that we have captured the bulk of those
requiring
registration, taking into account the dwindling numbers that are
appearing
at the registration centres and the shortening queues, especially
in rural
areas.”
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/MARGARET CHINOWAITA • 29 JUNE 2013
9:42PMHARARE - Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC says it has
offered
disgruntled founding member Grace Kwinjeh one of the six seats
reserved for
women in Manicaland province.
Under the proportional
representation system, 60 seats in the National
Assembly will be reserved
for women, with six seats for each province.
MDC spokesperson Douglas
Mwonzora said: “Grace Kwinjeh was offered one of
the six seats meant for
proportional representation in Manicaland.
These seats were meant for
women, we do not know whether she has accepted
the offer.”
He said
they looked at seniority in the party, consistency and personal
attributes
of the person to be fielded.
“We know that many women are quite capable
in the MDC and they can be more
than 60 so if anybody was left behind, that
was not because of lack of
qualities,” Mwonzora said.
Kwinjeh, a
journalist-cum-politician came out guns blazing when her victory
in the
primaries for MDC Makoni Central Constituency a fortnight ago was
reversed.
“That is what I do not understand, it discredits the whole
process,” she
fumed.
“I do hope the party leadership can resolve that
quickly. I have lodged a
complaint with the party leadership. I am waiting
to hear from them, in
particular our party president, Morgan Tsvangirai as
he is the highest
authority. I think in the case of a dispute he has the
authority to decide,”
she told the Daily News.
However, it seems as
if Kwinjeh has got some respite.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co/
30.06.13by Sofia Mapuranga
There was
confusion at the Nomination Court at Chitungwiza Town Council
yesterday
after it emerged that the MDC- T had availed more than one
candidate per
Ward for election as councilors in more than nine wards in the
constituency.In the nomination results announced by an official
from the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission around 8 pm yesterday, the MDC- T was
fielding more
than one candidate to stand under the party’s ticket in Wards
4, 6, 11, 16,
17 and 23 among others.
In Ward 16, two candidates,
both from MDC- T, Muchaneta Zemura and Lorraine
Usayiwevhu were up for
political office in the forthcoming polls together
with Zanu (PF)’s Tapson
Chiramba.
In Ward 17, two MDC- T aspirants, David Rukweza and Gladys Jena
also
successfully filed their nomination papers under the party’s
ticket.
An MDC- T supporters, Batsirai Simangwa said the confusion arose
after the
party’s provincial leadership endorsed the candidature of more
than one
person.
He said: “Our provincial leadership signed
nomination papers for more than
one candidate. As it is now, we do not know
who to campaign for because the
party availed more than one applicant and
their names were officially called
out by the ZEC.”
Ward 17’s David
Rukweza said in the wards where two candidates had submitted
their papers,
the only just and noble thing to do was to have a re- run of
the primary
elections.
“My suggestion is that we go back and hold elections as a
party and whoever
is beaten, bows out,” he said.
“The challenge is
that there are others among those who have put their
papers for political
office who want to use the influence of those at the
top to gain political
office. Let us be fair and conduct elections,” he
added.
Another
party supporter who was at the venue of nomination, Theresa
Kapondoro said
failure to handle primary election queries by the party had
the potential to
dilute the vote.
She said: "Some of the concerns raised by some of the
candidates who have
decided to file their papers as independent candidates
are genuine.
"These people did not lose the primaries and they are loved
by the people.
They will dilute the vote to the party's disadvantage," she
said.
Efforts to get a comment from MDC- T spokesperson, Douglas Mwonzora
or the
party's Organising Secretary, Nelson Chamisa were futile as their
mobile
numbers went unanswered.
Zanu (PF) aspiring councilors scoffed
at the gross irregularities within the
party and said this exhibited the
levels of confusion within the party
structures.
"We had our
challenges, but the party position has been very clear.
Disgruntled
candidates are in this race as independent candidates because we
do want to
confuse the electorate," said one aspiring councilor.
Countrywide, the
Nomination Courts yesterday took nomination papers for
those aspiring to
contest for presidential, senatorial, national house of
assembly and rural
and urban council seats in the forthcoming polls
The election body had
indicated that 4 pm was going to be the cutting off
time for nomination and
‘late comers were not going to be entertained’,
deferring their
participation for political office to 2018.
However, due to the
overwhelming number of aspiring councilors, who had
defected from their
parties of choice and were standing as independent
candidates, the
Nomination Court in Chitungwiza sat until around 8 pm as
candidates
rectified errors on their papers to enable them to be in the
running for
political office.
So far, 28 political parties are said to be interested
in contesting the
harmonised elections, although talk of a grand coalition
among the political
parties is rife.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/FUNGI KWARAMBA • 30 JUNE 2013 8:15AM
HARARE -
As hard as it is to fathom, President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF
rigged its
own primary elections, vanquished candidates said, making a
mockery of the
democratic process.
The Zanu PF primary elections were messy, what with
cardboard boxes and
empty buckets for ballot boxes. But the proportion of
rigging which saw
candidates like Auxilia Mnangagwa amassing an unbelievable
17 000 votes in
Kwekwe-Chirumanzu shocked even the staunchest admirers of
the ex-majority
party.
The figures were unusually high in most parts
of the country, with Newton
Kachepa amassing an incredible 10 165 in Mudzi
North against his challenger’s
3 171.
On Tuesday, Justice minister
Patrick Chinamasa told a weekly that he was not
ruling out electoral
malpractice in the poll.
“I don’t want to be cheated, I am wary of that,”
he said.
Chinamasa locked horns with his bitter rival Basil Nyabadza and
scrapped a
win albeit by less than 20 votes, as the Emmerson Mnangagwa
faction made
strides in the province hitherto in the hands of Vice President
Joice Mujuru’s
faction.
Factionalism aside, heavyweights in the
ex-majority party used every trick
in the rigging book to worm back to
Parliament, their vanquished opponents
said.
In Zvimba North, Marian
Chombo alleged her ex-husband Ignatius Chombo had
engaged in embarrassing
electoral fraud. She said on Tuesday her name was
deleted on the ballot
paper.
“Chombo stole the elections because he knew he was going to lose,”
she said.
“I am going to stand as an independent candidate and wrest that
seat from
him,” she vowed.
Chombo, was forced three years ago to cede
a significant portion of his
fortune to his first wife Marian in a split-up
touted as historically one of
the most expensive divorce settlements in
Zimbabwe.
While the actual voting process was fraught with
irregularities, the
pre-election period was characterised by violence and
intimidation which saw
aspiring candidates like Mashonaland Central governor
Martin Dinha opting
out of the race after escaping an assassination
attempt.
“Since my entry into the poll race, a handful of provincial
members have
joined hands with one of the aspirants RT Matangira to unleash
a violent
campaign of hate speech, violence, threats to violence,
demonisation and
other heinous acts including busing hooligans to Musana,
Masembura and
denying my agents to campaign freely and fairly,” said Dinha
in a letter to
provincial chairman Dickson Mafios announcing his decision to
pull out from
a race that he described as “flawed, scandalous, hostile and
manipulated”.
In a classical display of a vintage Zanu PF, newcomers or
pretenders learnt
the hard way how difficult it is to dislodge political
giants.
Vote buying is by no means a new phenomenon in the country’s
turbulent
political history, but Zanu PF rivals went a step further as they
bused
supporters in constituencies such as Mbare where Tendai Savanhu romped
to
victory.
In Bikita West, gospel musician Elias Musakwa who had
been cleared by the
politburo to stand as the party candidate, said he was
shocked on Tuesday
when he received news that Munyaradzi Kereke, ex-advisor
to Reserve Bank
governor Gideon Gono was participating in primary
elections.
“When I was at a funeral, I was told that Kereke was
conducting an election
but I did not trouble myself since the politburo
ruled that I would run
uncontested. The politburo chaired by the president
endorsed my candidature
unopposed so I am the rightful candidate for Bikita
West,” said Musakwa.
Former Copac co-chairperson Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana
lost his Chivi Central
seat to trade unionist and sugarcane farmer Ephraim
Gwanongodza amid
allegations that the poll had been rigged.
On Friday
Mangwana, reeling from the devastating defeat, declined to
comment.
Didymus Mutasa, Zanu PF administration secretary said
allegations of
electoral malpractice in the internal poll were a “media
concoction.”
Zanu PF national chairperson Simon Khaya Moyo could not be
reached for
comment.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co/
30.06.13by Edgar Gweshe
THE
trial of top human rights lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, who is facing charges
of
obstructing the course of justice, was today postponed to July
19.Today, the trial, held at the Harare Magistrates Court, saw the
cross
examination of State witness, Luxon Mukazhi.
On July 19, the
trial will continue with the cross examination of Mukazhi as
this could not
be finished today due to time constraints as the court closes
at
noon.
Magistrate Rumbidzai Mugwagwa presided over the case while the
State was
represented by Tawanda Zvekare.
Mtetwa was arrested on
March 17 for allegedly obstructing the police from
conducting a search at
the house of an aide to the Prime Minster, Morgan
Tsvangirai as well as the
premier's private offices in Avondale.
The police were acting on a tip
off that four MDC-T officials; Thabani
Mpofu, Warship Dumba, Felix Matsinde
and Mehluli Tshuma were unlawfully
compiling criminal dockets in respect of
prominent government officials.
Speaking after the trial, Mtetwa's
lawyer, Harrison Nkomo expressed optimism
that the case would be given a
full week to allow proceedings to move
swiftly.
Initially, Nkomo had
raised concern that holding the trial during Saturdays
imposes serious time
constraints but the State objected to his proposal.
Today, Nkomo raised
the issue in court again and Magistrate Mugwagwa said
the matter would be
deliberated on in the next trial.
However, the State had put forward a
proposal of the case being heard on
July 28, which would be a Saturday as
well.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/FUNGI KWARAMBA AND XOLISANI NCUBE • 30 JUNE 2013
8:04AM
HARARE - It might be a team made in hell lining up to represent
President
Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF in the forthcoming elections, yet the
political
jokers, flip-floppers, recycled wood and security cabal fit neatly
into Zanu
PF’s tragic-comic art of politics.
Some like Jonathan Moyo,
Philip Chiyangwa and Kindness Paradza, who once
suffered the full wrath of
Zanu PF, are now back in the fold anxious for a
comeback on the former
ruling party’s ticket.
But who will vote for Moyo this time? What with
his sordid history.
After winning as an independent in 2008 he left the
rustic life of
Tsholotsho to bask in the trappings of urban life and then
rejoined Zanu
PF — stabbing the people who had elected him in the
back.
It is unlikely that the serial political flip-flopper will be able
to
convince the forgotten lot in Tsholotsho to vote for him yet
again.
In the marginalised province of Matabeleland North, Mugabe and
Zanu PF are
blamed for the deprivation of the region and it is unlikely that
Moyo will
see off Roseline Nkomo, the wife of Samuel
Sipepa-Nkomo.
Questions to be answered include; is it bhora mugedhi this
time around for
people like Moyo, who is accused by some of plotting the
demise of Zanu PF
from within?
Money talks and flamboyant businessman
Philip Chiyangwa is back in Chinhoyi
after years in the political wilderness
caused by a conviction in 2003 of
espionage. Time alters everything and
since his conviction, the power
dynamics have changed in Mashonaland West
making it an unenviable task for
the dollar man — because just like Mugabe
who once banished him for leaking
politburo meetings to the South African
government for a fee of course,
urban voters do not forget fast and
easily.
Still in Mugabe’s home province, former journalist Kindness
Paradza is back
in the crease and hopefully with a sting that will exonerate
his treacherous
switch from Zanu PF to join Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn in
2008.
In Mbare, Zanu PF politburo member Tendai Savanhu is set to lock
horns with
Eric Knight, a former radio announcer.
Chipangano might
have made Mbare a no-go area in the past four years but
voting is a secret
event — where the electorate has a chance to secretly
dump tormentors. With
all his money, Savanhu is likely to lose in Mbare
unless he plays hardball
as he is accused by his comrades in Zanu PF of
having done during the
party’s rigged primary elections.
The surname Ushewokunze conjures
memories of a liberation hero Herbert, but
few have ever heard about his son
Abicia who is running against Elias
Mudzuri in Warren Park. The famous
surname aside, Abicia is unlikely to
dislodge Mudzuri and what more it is an
urban constituency where the MDC is
stronger than Zanu PF.
Still in
an urban setting MDC heavyweight Tapiwa Mashakada might be counting
his
blessings after he was drawn against Ace Lumumba Matanje a political
nonentity. Godwills Masimirembwa, is seeking to silence disc
jockey-turned-politician James Maridadi, and what a mammoth task for the
Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) chairperson given that Zanu
PF is unpopular in Harare.
Still with mining but this time on
diamonds, Marange Resources boss Tshinga
Dube will have to make diamonds
shine in Mokokoba where he will slug it out
with persons like Gorden Moyo
and representatives from the Welshman
Ncube-led MDC. Ever bungling at the
Zimbabwe Warriors Trust where he is the
boss, it is doubtable that Dube will
be able to squeeze a win in a
constituency that dumped Zanu PF over a decade
ago.
Apart from being a businessman of note, Dube has links to the
security
sector which in the pending polls is epitomised by police
spokesperson
Oliver Mandipaka.
Flagrantly breaking the Police Act,
which prohibits serving officers from
partaking in elections, Mandipaka
hopes to ride on the police badge and win
the Buhera West constituency
against MDC’s Jaison Matewu.
Perhaps Harare is no longer a safe bet for
Hubert Nyanhongo who decided to
dump his Harare South constituency seat,
opting to go for Nyanga North where
he will fight, probably tooth and nail,
against MDC spokesperson Douglas
Mwonzora who relishes the chance to silence
the noisy Zanu PF lawmaker oops
ex-lawmaker since Parliament expired
yesterday.
Across the mountains in Nyanga South, radio personality and
former
affirmative action chief Supa Mandiwanzira, will be tackling Willard
Chimbetete, a subdued person by any stretch of the
imagination.
Riding on free coverage from his own radio, Mandiwanzira
hopes that the
electorate will dump Chimbetete in support the rare fresh
blood flowing in
the veins of a worn out party that is in urgent need to
reform itself.
Despite several charges hanging ominously on his head,
former warriors’
fitness trainer and controversial businessman Temba Mliswa
is back in the
mix and with all his energies focused on Hurungwe West
against a relatively
unknown quantity Wilson Makanyaire, who is the
provincial secretary for MDC
in Mashonaland West.
In the middle of
Zimbabwe just like elsewhere, war drums are beating
feverishly towards
showdown not between MDC and Zanu PF but also between
Zanu PF factions.
Little known personalities, political wise that is, like
former Premier
Soccer League boss Tapiwa Mashingaidze are rubbing shoulders
with tried
veterans like Defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa as they plot an
MDC rout
in Midlands. No doubt, the balance of power in Chirumanzu-Zibangwe
favours
Mnangagwa, after all the constituency was created specifically for
him
following successive defeats to the MDC in Kwekwe urban.
But there is no
such certainty for Matangaidze, who runs a beer outlet on
the periphery of
Harare CBD.
The former PSL boss, who failed as a football administrator,
is unlikely to
excel in politics even as an MP for Shurugwi South, having
presided over the
domestic league that was fraught with blunders.
In
Masvingo province Tongai Muzenda, son of the late vice president Simon
Mzenda, though unknown and reserved, might fancy his chances as he is
succeeding a Zanu PF comrade and will also be riding on his father’s
popularity.
He however, faces a stern test from Philip Bohwasi who is
hoping that Gutu
West will join other constituencies and show Zanu PF the
exit door. Fred
Moyo, a well- travelled mine engineer and former director
for Wankie
Colliery, believes he can find a safe landing in Zvishavane-
Runde
constituency after being fired from the mining giant probably due to
political factionalism in Zanu PF.
Before grabbing the ticket to
represent the party in the forthcoming polls,
Moyo was in political
wilderness and somehow managed to floor Emmerson
Mnangagwa’s right-hand man,
Larry Mavima in the party’s primary polls. He
will however, have to deal
with Clever Bhoko, another unpopular politician
trying to get a chance this
year. By Thursday a number of Zanu PF seats in
Mashonaland Central and
Midlands were still unclear as to who will represent
the party in the
forthcoming polls.
Only two constituencies had names of those contesting
candidates known in
Mashonaland Central while 12 constituencies had known
candidates in Midlands
out of 25 constituencies. It was however, not clear
as to why these
constituencies had no known candidates raising suspicion
that it could have
been fuelled by factionalism in the former ruling party.
Watch it here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G5nl2VnynU
1.
Knocking
on Embassy door
2.
Tree of
Hope
1.
Southwark
Cathedral
2.
Vigil in the sun
today
Exiled Zimbabweans
symbolically knocked on the closed door of the Zimbabwe Embassy in London in
protest at the refusal to give the diaspora a vote in the coming elections. We
are being denied a basic human right – one in which we are supported by the
African Union.
The demonstration on
Thursday 27th June marked the fifth anniversary of the abortive
presidential run-off which enabled Mugabe to bludgeon his way back into State
House. The demonstration was organized by Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA),
the successor to the Anti-Apartheid Movement, under the banner of ‘Never Again’
to a repeat of the terrible events of 2008.
Apart from Vigil,
ROHR and Zimbabwe We Can supporters, there were also representatives of trade
unions and Amnesty International among groups joining us in calling for free and
fair elections that comply with SADC standards – a goal which seems increasingly
unobtainable given Mugabe’s persistent failure to honour his promises of
reforms.
Although Thursday was
a working day, it did not surprise us to find that the Embassy was sealed up
against the world. Perhaps it was because they get to hear of our protests.
Anyway, we are accustomed to a closed door.
Centrepiece of the
demonstration was a stark ‘tree of hope’ (made by Mark Beacon of ACTSA) on which
was hung messages wishing for free and fair and non-violent elections written on
red paper roses by people who had called at our regular Saturday Vigil. The tree
was taken to Southwark Cathedral after the demonstration and installed there by
the Sub-Dean, Canon Bruce Saunders, who led us in prayers for peace and justice.
Father Saunders
explained the Cathedral’s strong links with Zimbabwe and told us prayers for
Zimbabwe in the election period were to be said in all churches in the Southwark
diocese. He showed us a map of Zimbabwe on the wall of the Cathedral
incorporating earth and artifacts from home. We were touched when we left to see
a young girl already filling out a message for our tree of hope.
On our way by bus to
Southwark Cathedral an article in the London Times by their regular columnist
former Conservative Party MP Matthew Parris was passed among supporters.
Headlined ‘Mugabe – a great warrior and, yes, a great leader’, it caused
universal shock. ‘Was he paid by Mugabe?’ one supporter asked.
Matthew Parris, who
was educated in Zimbabwe, speculated in his column about Nelson Mandela’s final
resting place and went on to speak of Rhodes’s grave in the Matobo National
Park. He says: ‘When the time comes,
even as a sort-of white Rhodesian, I should like to see Mugabe’s memorial
alongside Rhodes in that sacred place. I know the President is from the Mashona
people, historic foes of the Matabele. I know Rhodes did many cruel things,
dispossessed and killed many people and cheated Chief Lobengula unforgivably.
But still, for his restless and unbounded energy, for his vast achievements and
for his almost limitless vision, I would call Rhodes’s a great life.
‘Exit half my
readers. Now to alienate the other half. I know Robert Mugabe has made some
terrible mistakes, brought his country for a while close to ruin and been
associated with the murder of many Matabele people. But still, for his
tremendous ambition, his long fight against overwhelming odds, and his
deliverance of his people from submission to another race, he deserves the name
of both warrior and leader, and I would call his a great life.
‘Great men
may do brutal things. History is shaped by complicated people, their greatness
seldom uncompromised, their nobility tangled with infamy, their wisdom with
folly. For good or ill and usually both, they stamp indelibly their age and
their country, and we can respect without always approving. I should one day
like to see Cecil John Rhodes and Robert Gabriel Mugabe side by side in that
awesome place. In this there might be, as Nelson Mandela above all other
Africans would recognise, something like a
reconciliation.’
Yes, the
Vigil agrees there is something ‘awesome’ in the idea of burying the Gukurahundi
butcher of 20,000 Ndebeles in the Ndebele ‘sacred space’ – but not in the sense
Parris means. Over the years the Vigil has chronicled his idiotic comments on
Zimbabwe which seem to follow his regular holidays there. (One way of paying for
them!) See vigil diaries of 11/01/2011 and 18/04/2012 – http://www.zimvigil.co.uk/the-vigil-diary/281-zimbabwe-vigil-diary-15th-january-2011.
http://www.zimvigil.co.uk/vigil-news/press-releases/392-silly-ninny--zimbabwe-vigil-18th-april-2012.
The warm
sunshine seemed to empower us at the Vigil today. Regular supporter Peter
Sidindi condemned African leaders for being taken in by Mugabe’s revolutionary
posturing when he was exactly the opposite of a freedom fighter. Ephraim Tapa,
leader of ROHR and the We Can Movement said that as from today we were without a
parliament and without reforms ahead of the coming elections . . . in other
words facing a closed door.
Other
points
·
Thanks to those who
attended the ‘Never Again’ protest, namely Arnold Magwanyata,
Cephas Maswoswa, Charles Dumisani Ndlovu, David Kadzutu, Dennis Benton, Eric
Eluwasi, Eugenia Mushonga, Manyara Matandaware-Ngwenya, Mary Eluwasi, Netsai
Makarichi, Nkosikona Tshabangu, Persuade Ziki, Rose Benton, Rosemary Maponga,
Sandura Ncube, Tino Mashonganyika. Some came from as far afield as Birmingham,
Colchester and Southampton. We were glad to be joined by Marga Knorr of Beyond
Violence who came to last week’s Forum to talk about ways we could work
together.
·
For pictures of
Thursday’s demonstration taken by Paul Davey, check: http://tinyurl.com/pge2s9z.
For latest Vigil
pictures check: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/.
Please note: Vigil photos can only be downloaded from our Flickr website – they
cannot be downloaded from the slideshow on the front page of the Zimvigil
website.
FOR THE RECORD: 49
signed the register.
EVENTS AND NOTICES:
·
ROHR Leicester branch
meeting. Saturday
6th July from 1.30 – 4 pm. Venue: Woodgate Resource Centre, 36
Woodgate, Leicester LE3 5GE. Contact: Enniah Dube 07403439707 (Chairperson),
Pardon Gurupira 07427382599 (Vice Chairperson), Bryan Mashonganyika 07450547313
(Secretary).
·
ROHR Slough branch
meeting. Saturday 13th July
from 1 – 5 pm. Venue: Upton Lea Community Hall, Wexham Road SL1 5JW. Contact:
Grace Nyaumwe 07850 284 506, Patricia Masamba 07708 116
625.
·
Zimbabwe Action Forum
(ZAF). Saturday
20th July from 6.30 – 9.30 pm. Venue: Strand Continental Hotel (first
floor lounge), 143 Strand, London WC2R 1JA. The Strand is the same road as the
Vigil. From the Vigil it’s about a 10 minute walk, in the direction away from
Trafalgar Square. The Strand Continental is situated on the south side of the
Strand between Somerset House and the turn off onto Waterloo Bridge. The
entrance is marked by a big sign high above and a sign for its famous Indian
restaurant at street level. It's next to a newsagent. Nearest underground:
Temple (District and Circle lines) and Holborn.
·
ROHR
North East Region Zimbabwe Day Fundraising
Event. Saturday 27th July from 1 – 8 pm. Venue: Benton Community
Centre, 17 Edenbridge Crescent, Benton, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne NE12 8EP. Food,
drink & entertainment. Contact Givemore Chitengu 07912747744, Kennedy
Makonese 07979914429, Tapiwa Semwayo 07412236229, Collet Dube 07951516566.
• Zimbabwe Vigil
Highlights 2012 can be viewed on
this link: http://www.zimvigil.co.uk/the-vigil-diary/467-vigil-highlights-2012.
Links to previous years’ highlights are listed on 2012 Highlights
page.
• The Restoration of
Human Rights in Zimbabwe (ROHR) is the Vigil’s
partner organization based in Zimbabwe. ROHR grew out of the need for the Vigil
to have an organization on the ground in Zimbabwe which reflected the Vigil’s
mission statement in a practical way. ROHR in the UK actively fundraises through
membership subscriptions, events, sales etc to support the activities of ROHR in
Zimbabwe. Please note that the official website of ROHR Zimbabwe is
http://www.rohrzimbabwe.org/. Any other website claiming to be the official
website of ROHR in no way represents the views and opinions of
ROHR.
• Facebook
pages:
-
Vigil: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8157345519&ref=ts
-
ZAF: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Zimbabwe-Action-Forum-ZAF/490257051027515
-
ROHR: https://www.facebook.com/pages/ROHR-Zimbabwe-Restoration-of-Human-Rights/301811392835
• Vigil Myspace
page:
http://www.myspace.com/zimbabwevigil.
• Useful
websites: www.zanupfcrime.com
which reports on Zanu PF abuses and www.ipaidabribe.org.zw where people can
report corruption in Zimbabwe
• Contact details for
Beyond Violence.
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/beyondviolenceorg,
Website: www.beyondviolence.org, Twitter: https://twitter.com/Beyond_Violence.
Vigil
co-ordinators
The Vigil, outside
the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place every Saturday from 14.00
to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of human rights in Zimbabwe. The
Vigil which started in October 2002 will continue until
internationally-monitored, free and fair elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/OWN CORRESPONDENT • 29 JUNE 2013
8:40PM
BEITBRIDGE - The mobile network signal drops as you get to the
border gate,
a sign that you are entering foreign territory.
“Thank
you for choosing MTN,” says an electronic voice message from the
mobile
phone network.
“If you wish to stay connected, select the roaming service
of your choice.
Have a nice journey to Zimbabwe.”
It’s a typical
wintry morning at the South African side of the Beitbridge
Border Post.
There is a queue of about 30 people. Soon, three buses from
Johannesburg
enroute to Harare and Bulawayo arrive.
Suddenly the queue is snaking
along the border fences.
The people are talking about everything from
robbers in Johannesburg, nice
cars cruising the carpet-like roads of the
city and of course, the price of
groceries they buy for resale back
home.
After a while, some in the queue start complaining about the slow
pace of
business at the border. Eventually, the discussions take a political
twist.
“Zimbabwe will be fine and we won’t need to go through this
again,” said a
man in the queue.
The discussion is briefly
interrupted by a South African immigration officer
who passes by to control
the snaking queue.
Appetite for the political subject is growing among
the crowd but many are
speaking in hushed tones for fear of saying the
“wrong” things in public.
“Things need to change in our country, we don’t
enjoy all these hassles”,
said a vocal woman in the queue who was among the
most outspoken.
“We wish we could get everything at home especially jobs
and we won’t need
to live a life on the road.”
She has been
journeying to South Africa for the last four years to buy goods
for resale
back home.
“I have a family of four boys and one girl and their father
died. I am both
the father and the mother of my children and have no option
but to live on
the road to make ends meet but if I get something better to
do I will stop
doing this,” she said as she was rubbing her palms to try
ward off the
biting chilly weather.
As the queue moves slowly towards
the passport stamping desks, a pregnant
woman walks up to ask for
preferential treatment at the head of the queue.
She gets a rude response
from a South African immigration officer on duty.
“This is not a
maternity ward, please go and join the queue,” barks the
immigration officer
in an authoritative and harsh tone.
The woman walks back. But after a
while, this time accompanied by two other
women, they try to plead her case
for special treatment.
She is visibly in pain but the immigration officer
would not have none of
it. Suddenly the woman collapses, and the female
immigration officer is
jerked into action, scrambling to assist
her.
“I don’t want people here, I am trying to deal with this mess and
you are
already causing some more mess,” she yells at the many Zimbabweans
in the
queue.
“I can close this border now if you don’t go back onto
the queue.”
The collapsed woman is eventually taken to a border first aid
room for
treatment.
But her appalling treatment at the hands of South
African immigration
officers elicited an angry reaction from the
crowd.
“We might be facing problems in our country but these people have
no right
to treat us like this,” said a visibly angry elderly
man.
“This woman is pregnant and it was a simple thing of allowing her to
stamp
her passport and go.”
In the meantime, several touts who work
in cahoots with the police and the
immigration officers are shunting up and
down, hand-holding those wishing to
jump the queue for a fee, where they are
easily served.
There are touts everywhere on the border and they ask for
anything between
R20 to R100 to jump the queue.
Inside the
immigration hall, a woman who had overstayed in South Africa by
two days, is
slapped with a R1 500 fine.
The service inside the immigration hall is
painstakingly slow. It’s taking
the officers about five minutes to clear a
single person and occasionally
they talk on their phones and exchange
pictures and other stuff while
Zimbabweans wait patiently.
One man
who could no longer stomach their behaviour expresses his
displeasure. But
he is answered in a way that one could not have imagined.
“Hey, hey, I am
dealing with Zimbabweans; you want me to just let criminals
pass through the
border?” the immigration officer shoots back.
“You won’t tell me how to
do my job, this is South Africa and we vet people,
we don’t just stamp
people’s passports like in Zimbabwe, here we catch
criminals.” Most of the
people in this morning queue have already endured
three hours of waiting to
cross the border into Zimbabwe.
“All this can end if we make things right
at home,” another man in the queue
interjects, joining into the hot
conversation at the border.
“If we don’t participate in elections, then
it means this suffering shall
continue. These South Africans have their own
way of holding their
government accountable, we ought to play our part and
go and vote to make
things better.”
Everyone here recalls of the 2008
political violence that saw many of them
fleeing to South Africa. They argue
about who is right between President
Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai.
While they are all agreed that the country needs a stable
government to
guarantee a return to the good old days, for those travelling
the opposite
direction into South Africa, things were even
worse.
They have to endure an unofficial screening exercise where some
people are
asked to prove that they had enough funds to look after
themselves while in
South Africa, a requirement that had been
scrapped.
But now the South Africans are gradually introducing
requirements of the
past for Zimbabweans wishing to enter South Africa like
proof of funds, a
sign that they might just be starting to shut the door on
Zimbabweans as
elections draw closer.
In 2008 South Africa had to
deal with an unprecedented humanitarian crisis
as thousands of Zimbabweans
crossed the Limpopo River fleeing economic and
political meltdown back
home.
Meanwhile, a group of Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) officials
swoop on
the travellers urging them to register to vote.
Reluctantly
one of the female cross border travellers accepts a Zec brochure
but before
they walk off to the next guest, she drops it down and muses:
“This won’t
change anything in my life.” The wind sweeps the Zec brochure
away.
http://www.zimbabweprimeminister.org/
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai says a new Zimbabwe
that guarantees social
development, justice and fairness is in sight when a
people-centred
government sweeps into power in a few months.
Speaking
to party structures in Umzingwane and Gwanda, Friday, Prime
Minister
Tsvangirai said Zimbabweans needed a fresh start only guaranteed by
a
government with clear development policies.
“The choice is clear, if you
think we need a new start and progress you will
vote for the social
democratic party, the MDC, a party with a social
conscience. We have to
break from the failure of the past,” the Premier
said.
He said it was
unfortunate that despite being endowed with vast resources,
Zimbabweans were
still living in poverty due to corruption promoted by the
former Zanu PF
administration.
“We just need a God-fearing leadership, we cannot allow
State sponsored
violence on our own people” the Premier said.
“Our
government will fight corruption. Proper use of the resources we have
will
ensure development in all areas. The anti-corruption commission will be
strengthened and given arresting powers,” the Prime Minister
said.
Among other things the Premier said his government will focus on
include
improvement in social services including clinics in rural areas,
education,
rehabilitation of infrastructure, creation of employment and the
rolling out
of drip irrigation in every ward to ensure food security. The
Premier said
10% of the national budget would be used to finance drip
irrigation
countrywide to ensure rural transformation.
The Premier is
on tour of Matabeleland provinces meeting MDC structures and
other
stakeholders ahead of the watershed elections.
